NEW DELHI : Byju Raveendran, an Indian mathematics whiz who soared from teacher to startup billionaire before his education-technology company imploded this year, now faces his biggest test.
FILE PHOTO: BYJU'S owner Byju Raveendran photo is seen on his company web page in this illustration taken, July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
The future of Raveendran's eponymous Byju's online coaching firm rests with India's courts after the county's biggest startup, once loved by global investors who valued it at $22 billion, crashed below $2 billion in valuation. The 44-year-old founder last week lost control of the company as a tribunal kick-started an insolvency process.
An appeals tribunal is expected to hold a hearing on Monday on whether Byju's insolvency process should be quashed after the former billionaire argued in court his company is solvent and that insolvency could shut it down and cost the jobs of 27,000 staff, including teachers. Insolvency also would not bode well for Byju's backers, such as Dutch technology investor Prosus.
Raveendran presented a"suave, nice and polished" image, appearing to heed advice, but"eventually there was a trust deficit", said another executive who quit last year as a Byju's senior vice president.Raveendran and a Byju's spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.An engineer by training, he started Byju's in 2011 with physical classes after friends urged him to go into teaching.
With the backing of investors like General Atlantic, Prosus and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropy venture, Raveendran spent millions on acquisitions, and the company says it has 150 million students in over 100 countries.
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